Hutchison builds consensus… for Constantine

You don’t need to squint too hard between the lines of yesterday’s Alki Foundation endorsement of Dow Constantine to read a pretty damn stinging rebuke of Republican Susan Hutchison, and her qualifications for King County Executive… or rather, lack thereof:

Alki Chairman Michael Luis said the county exec’s race was a difficult one for the group. But Luis said it boiled down to this: “Susan Hutchison remains sort of a political unknown and just never made people totally comfortable that she was ready to take the reins of a complicated government.”

As a result, Constantine, a liberal Democrat, got the nod over Hutchison, a self-described “moderate nonpartisan” who says Constantine is responsible for the county’s financial problems and beholden to special interests.

Constantine is not perceived as a “business-type candidate,” Luis acknowledged. But he is “well known” and could walk into the exec’s job “knowing how the place works.” The general sense among the Alki group was that Hutchison “hadn’t made the case she could do the job,” Luis said.

Ouch. And that’s putting it lightly.

The exec endorsement was indeed a difficult one for Alki, the political arm of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, but not in the sense that the final vote was all that close. This was a group strongly inclined to embrace Hutchison on ideological grounds, and she reportedly entered the process with a contingent of supporters at the Chamber. But after flubbing her interviews, she just couldn’t shake the impression that she was both uninformed and unqualified… and by a long shot.

Luis describes Hutchison as a “political unknown,” but then so is Joe Mallahan, and yet that didn’t stop the pro-business Chamber from endorsing the most pro-business of the two mayoral finalists. But when forced to pick between the liberal Constantine—who recently led the fight against Glacier Northwest’s Maury Island gravel mine—and the Cato-spouting, Discovery-Institute-board-sitting ex-newsreader Hutchison, pragmatism trumped ideology, and Alki members felt they had no choice but to endorse the only candidate who is professionally prepared to actually do the job.

Kinda ironic for Hutchison to lose the Chamber of Commerce’s endorsement when a central theme of her campaign has been her promise to declare the county “open for business.”

Hutchison has also pitched herself as the only candidate able to bring all parties to the table, yet it’s Constantine who is managing to put together a coalition of business, labor and environmental supporters, while Hutchison has largely distinguished herself through her union-baiting. If Hutchison does have any consensus building skills, they’ve mostly been utilized building a consensus for her opponent.

Immediately off topic, huh Cynical? Guess that means you don’t want to talk about why pro-business Hutchison can’t win the support of the biggest pro-business group in the county. Kinda blows a gaping hole in her whole “open for business” theme, doesn’t it?

Gee Goldy, kind of deflecting from alleged ILLEGAL ACTIVITY by Dow, aren’t you? Do you think this Leftist, who is part of the Chamber of Commerce, is really all that relevant?? His endorsement of Konstantine is downright embarrassing.

Honestly, I should’ve just deleted your first comment for being intentionally off-topic. You want to talk about a PDC complaint (and that’s all it is at this moment, a complaint) go get your own fucking blog, and see if you can get anybody to read it.

But all you really want to do is distract from the obvious fact that your candidate is totally unqualified to serve in office, and has come off as completely uninformed in all of her endorsement interviews. A pro-business candidate running against a self-described liberal, who can’t even manage to get the Chamber’s endorsement. That’s pathetic, even by Republican standards.

Yes, in many ways, Nickels was pro-business. In fact, it’s the perception that Nickels was in the pocket of developers that cost him a lot of votes amongst the McGinn crowd.

But… you couldn’t get a clearer ideological distinction than we have in the executive race, and yet the Chamber went with Constantine, because they just don’t believe Hutchison is qualified. And that’s the nut of this… Hutchison isn’t qualified.

Seems like the Alki Foundation has fallen for the foolish concept of a “political class” and only those so annointed have the qualifications to run. Charlie Royer and Norm Rice come to mind when I recall those not “prepared” to do the job. Then too, there was this Army General they hired to run Seattle’s schools. Wonder how he turned out?

@5 So? That is a big shocking allegation, the Chamber of Commerce is insider, good ol’ boy politics who knew? Except of course the same thing could be said of any chamber anywhere in the country.

Furthermore business associations are pragmatic, they would rather deal with a known quantity than someone they’ve never worked with before. Of course they endorsed the sitting mayor over a bunch of unknowns.

But the Israel endorsement should be proof enough that they are ready to endorse a newcomer more in line with their interests than the incumbent as long as the newcomer meets a certain level of competence.

Not to worry though, Hutchison is getting the endorsements and more importantly money and independent expenditures from a who’s who of conservative Eastside business types such as John Stanton and Kemper Freeman.

@10 Think of it this way, Hutchison blew her job interview with the Alki Foundation.

I can’t speak to Royer as I was quite young when he was first elected Mayor. However Rice had a few terms on the City Council before he ran for Mayor and Stanford had a proven track record running large complex political organizations both in his Army Career and as the manager of Fulton County Georgia.

and yet that didn’t stop the pro-business Chamber from endorsing the most pro-business of the two mayoral finalists

Interesting aside, Goldy. Can you or anyone else articulate any major differences between the two Mayoral candidates in terms of being pro or anti- business? They are both very pro business, and the fact that labor isn’t on the same page as to which one is less pro business seems to sum it up. The statement referenced above seems to be a subtle appeal to people that are suspicious of “business” to vote for McGinn, when (surprise) he has the same “business” people in his pocket as Nickels did.

Obviously, Mallahan’s experience in the private sector makes him much more appealing to the likes of the Chamber, but if you want one big reason why the business community (and some unions) support Mallahan over McGinn, it’s the tunnel.

The tunnel is A) a real estate redevelopment project that will ultimately benefit many businesses and property owners, B) a public works project that will put a lot of union members to work, while filling the pockets of contractors, and C) a tribute to the kind of status quoist thinking that can’t imagine Seattle without two downtown freeways.

Hold on. When have qualifications ever mattered to David? Didn’t he back the most unqualified, inexperienced candidate, who fibbed about her degrees and work experience, to ever run for Congress?

Oh right, we’re talking about the business group’s endorsement. Why support Dow? Could it be they just think he has better odds, and want to hedge their bets?

RE: Dow’s little campaign finance problem; it’s not so little. No less than David’s own business partner, Josh Feit, as recently as 2007 outlined EXACTLY this potential scenario. Well, now it looks like that could endanger Dow’s run. If it ever gets reported on, that is.

Strange that the guy who broke the original story, doesn’t want to follow up. Look in the left sidebar for corporate sponsorships. Bingo.

Emily@ #13 prattles: “He turned out pretty well until he got sick and passed away. Are you saying he died from lack of experience?”

No, you dipstick- I was referencing him as one who had no substantive experience running a school district yet one who rose to the occasion. Get it? Or is that too subtle a reference for you that suggests Hutchinson may be up to the job too? Given the sorry state of the County, Constantine’s “experience” is not a plus.

Goldy @16: Okay, so are we to conclude that McGinn’s “alternative” will not benefit developers, labor unions, and building contractors? This isn’t a very stong case IMO.

This does not address the theme of “business” vs “not business”. Both are pro business, each having a slightly different business “vision”. Profits can be made from both green and grey widgets in themselves.

But does a poor analysis on the impacts on the current local economy of “green” vs “grey” make someone “less pro business” or, just a bad manager?

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